Washington state decided that it didn’t have enough gun control laws, so it passed a whole butt-load of them last week. For better or worse–and it’s mostly worse–these laws will soon take effect.

Among them are new restrictions on rifles, including a requirement for a more enhanced background check, a training requirement, a so-called safe storage law, and increased age requirements to purchase them among other things.

Gun stores in the state, however, are bracing for increased demand as people flock to the stores to pick up guns before the new regulations go into effect.

“The response to this is always classic,” said Wade Gaughran, owner of Wade’s Eastside Guns. “People will buy guns to beat the deadline.”

The initiative also authorizes the state to require gun sellers to add $25 to sales of semi-automatic rifles to pay for new regulations.

Under a “safe storage” provision, gun owners could face criminal penalties if someone not legally allowed to have the rifles, such as a child or felon, gains access to them and fires the gun or uses it in a crime. The safe storage provision does not apply if the gun was secured with a trigger lock or similar device or if the owner had reported it stolen within five days.

“We will see people speed up their gun purchases,” Gaughran said. “(Buyers will say) ‘I’ll buy the next year or two of my gun budget in the next few months just so I can bypass this law for as long as possible.'”

The Alliance for Gun Responsibility advocated for the initiative. Spokesman Tallman Trask said new regulations can lead to increased sales but the initiative will not lead to “onerous restrictions.”

“What it really boils down to is people are a little unsure of how to respond to new regulations and they go out and buy new firearms,” Trask said. “It’s unfortunate.”

Except that the initiative expressly creates onerous restrictions. A 10-day waiting period and a training requirement just to buy a damn long gun? I’m sorry, but that’s incredibly onerous, especially since only a handful of crimes are committed with long guns each year.

Of course, what else do you expect from a gun grabber? Like they understand how difficult it is to buy a gun right now?

But while Trask thinks it’s “unfortunate” that people will flock to gun stores to buy rifles, I say it’s inevitable. People don’t like restrictions on what they want to do, so they’ll do whatever they can to avoid them if possible. In a case like this, it means the next two months will be a long-gun buying frenzy in Washington as people snap up their guns now, so they don’t have to deal with the new rules.

Gun grabbers will never acknowledge one thing about these new regulations, and that’s how they won’t work. Even after we have tons of data showing that it doesn’t, it won’t matter.

They’re oblivious to reality.

Unfortunately, their oblivious natures hurt real people. How many people under 21 will die because they couldn’t purchase the means to defend their own lives? They’re legal adults, often living on their own and paying their own bills, but they can’t be trusted to defend themselves.

Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. He's also the host of Unloaded TV on YouTube.
https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/